All posts by spieladmin

Pfadfinder had the pleasure of welcoming 21 German exchange students to Canberra on Monday. They are here on exchange for a week with Canberra Girls Grammar school, before moving on to a school in NSW.

Pfadfinder held up our Welcome to Australia banner outside the scout hall when the students’ bus arrived. Inside the hall, the students could refresh themselves and store their luggage, while they waited for their host families to pick them up.

Our Pfadfinder welcomed the students and talked to them (in English und auf Deutsch, natuerlich) about what it is like to live in Canberra, and heard about what the students planned to do while in Australia and a little about their lives back in Germany.

Of course, we served a few traditional Australian treats: Tim Tams, Arnott’s Tiny Teddies and iced Vovos, lamingtons, mango and apple juice, Milo, and slices of watermelon.

Some students had a go flying our drone, which was fun.

It was a pleasure to meet the students and their teachers, and we hope they enjoy being German in Canberra as much as we do!

At the GAP, our teachers don’t wait for Outdoor Classroom Day to take our eager students outdoors to learn. We spend time outdoors every day!

Apart from our own playground, we often have picnics and take walks into Haig Park (adjacent to our hall), or further afield to the local playground. Getting there is half the fun, as we encounter cyclists, dog-walkers, pedestrians, and stop to examine sticks, tree nuts, leaves, grasses and insects, along the way. We walk across bridges, learn to walk together as a group, hold hands, keep to the side of the path, and become more aware of our surroundings.

Apart from the obvious benefits for children being outside, it is also great to increase our awareness of our environment and what we can do to care for it.

When we return to the GAP, we get to have a big race for the last 100 meters or so, which always brings a lot of cheers and smiles to our faces.

Our Joeys were delighted to be part of an exciting environmental awareness night. ACT Conservation Volunteer Manager, Tatjana Schmidt, ran an evening of fun and educational activities. The joeys and their Joey Leader, Kerria, are already looking forward to Tatjana’s next evening, coming up later this year!

We collected objects from our natural environment, and learned their German names.

We made a poster about the things we find and must care for in our environment. Alles auf Deutsch, natuerlich!

Our library was one of the lucky recipients of Lilli’s love and attention over the summer.

The library underwent a massive re-vamp, starting from a huge jumble of over a thousand books, some on shelves, some stacked in piles, some stored in boxes under tables…. Our library now hosts what is undoubtedly the nicest (and most beautifully organised) German children’s book, video and music collection in Canberra.

Just a few of the myriad books that got sorted this summer.

Many books were given to grateful families, many others were donated to LifeLine to carry on their good work circulating in the wider German community. Only the best made it through to the finals, to our sleek new library, so we are sure you will enjoy browsing our shelves.

New books and donations are being received all the time by our librarians Florian and Lilli, so keep checking the shelves for fresh material and old favourites.

The library caters for 0-16 year olds, and sections include learning German, ABCs and vocabulary builders, children’s classics, the popular Wieso Warum Weshalb series, music, videos, mystery, adventure, and much more.

Pfadfinderinnen! Lilli has even created you a “starke Maedchen” section! Come and check it out!

After many hours of hard work over the summer, our foyer has been completely renovated.

No more horrible cramped, dark, cluttered storage area. We have welcomed in a bright, open, cheerful, greatly enlarged space to work and play in.

Each GAP child now has their own personalised area to store their personal items; Pfadfinder have more room to do woodwork and other projects; Spiel und Spass parents have more room for prams.

Many thanks to the parents and scouts who put so much time into the renovation, designing, demolishing, sorting, purchasing, cleaning, painting, tiling, fixing, woodworking, and much more. We are so fortunate to have such a dedicated and amazing community who can pull together to create something terrific for us all to use.

After the first stage of the demolition

Nearly ready for action (view of the north end)

First day of school in 2018 (view of the south end). Note the cute washing line on the far wall, for lost and found items!

The GAP children went on a little expedition around the hall, checking out all the renovations. Out the back of the hall, we found Saul from TotalSpan Canberra, up on the roof of our new shed, putting on the finishing touches. We waved to him and asked what he was doing up there. He replied that he was making mud pies! We didn’t believe him though, and so he came down to visit with us.

We were allowed to see what he was doing, and go into the new shed. We are sure that the Pfadfinder scouts will be very happy when they see their new shed. And GAP and Spiel und Spass are happy too because they have the old toy shed all to themselves now. No more overcrowding hazards!

Many thanks to the ACT government’s Community Support and Infrastructure Grant program, for allowing us to build the shed.

At the end of the day, the children all received Schultueten. It is a tradition in Germany that each child received a cone shaped Schultuete full of little presents, school supplies, and little items they will need for Kindergarten.

Normally the Schultueten are organised by the child’s family, but here at the German Australian Playschool we provide these for the children as our gift to families. It has been known to bring tears to the eyes of German parents who remember receiving these on their own first day at school.

Many German parents tell us they even have photographs or vivid memories of themselves or even their own parents with their Schultuete on their first day of school in Germany.

Children may keep all the items inside, but need to return the empty cones to us for future use, please.

As GAP opened for its 12th year of operation, an excited class of children received their traditional Schultueten.

We are pleased to announce that there were no tears from the children all day. (We won’t mention the tears of one lovely mum, whose eyes were a bit wet with gratitude and relief as her daughter ran off with her new friends to play, and settled in straight away!)

Our first day saw children busy singing, rolling around on the carpet giggling, creating self-portraits with craft materials, enjoying morning tea on the deck outside, (re-)orienting themselves in the classroom and playground, making new friends, and excitedly exploring their newly renovated surroundings.

The teachers all agree: It is great to be back at the GAP for another year of fun!